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Wednesday, September 10, 2014

Literary Hotels—Would You Stay?

SUSAN ELIA MACNEAL: My next Maggie Hope novel, MRS. ROOSEVELT'S CONFIDANTE, is due to my editor on October 15th — and so I'm been thinking a lot about writing retreats.

(Not only are the Hubby, Kiddo, Miss Edna, and cats Xander and Lola around, but we seem to have taken in another human, at least for a while. He's just twenty-one and was dealt a tough hand in life in general and also recently. And, so, we have another person hanging out with the gang for a while.)

Can you blame me for googling writing retreats? Looking for a room of one's own? A corner of the sky? (Oh, please, I'll settle for a door I can lock....)

What I found in the process of all this daydreaming was that there exist hotels inspired by writers and dedicated to readers. I was amazed by the depth and breadth of what I found. What fun!

The first hotel I discovered is actually in my home town of New York City. It's called The Library Hotel. The concept is amazing —

The Library Hotel concept is inspired by the Dewey Decimal system. Each of the 10 guestroom floors honor one of the 10 categories of the Dewey Decimal System and each of the 60 rooms are uniquely adorned with a collection of books and art exploring a distinctive topic within the category it belongs to. Guests are invited to unwind from their urban adventures by enjoying the quiet exploration of over 6,000 books.

You could write in your room, in the extensive library, or on the roof deck. Sigh.... If I could afford it, I'd finish the novel there.

The next book-themed hotel I found is called The Sylvia Beach Hotel ("truly a hotel for book lovers") in Nye, Oregon. They have rooms divided into types: Classics, Bestsellers, and Novels. A mystery buff could choose the Agatha Christie room — which has its own private deck, fireplace, and an ocean front view. Guests can choose from the many Christie books on the shelves and "perhaps find a clue from each mystery hidden somewhere in the room." There's also library/reading area and a restaurant.

And there's also Akwaaba, D.C. I've stayed at the Akwaaba Mansion in Brooklyn, but have yet to stay in the sister hotel in Washington, D.C.'s Dupont Circle. However, I can't wait! The hotel's rooms are themed after African-American writers — and of course I'd pick the Walter Mosley suite.

There's also a "Writer's Retreat" which is basically a really lovely apartment with galley kitchen, two bedrooms, etc. Sounds fabulous, doesn't it?

SUSAN ELIA MACNEAL: Reds and lovely readers, what do you think about these book- and reading-themed hotels? Would you stay? Which room would you choose? If you could create your own themed hotel room, what would be like?

Love the concept of a library hotel. And a writer's retreat. If I could design my own? A straw-bale Hobbit's hole with a round door, books in all the nooks and crannies, and a view over the sea, so I could dream and read and write.

And kudos to you and yours, for finding the space in your lives to squeeze in one more child in need. No matter the age, we're all a child in need at some point in our lives.

The Library Hotel has long been on my list of places to stay in NYC. I saw a Travel Channel documentary about it years ago and have since longed to stay there.

Since I travel to NYC fairly often, I always take a moment to look up the rates for when I am there. I have yet to break down and do it, but I suspect it will happen one of these days.

I also want to one day stay at Nora Roberts' Bed and Breakfast in Boonsboro, MD. I have been to the town (which her family pretty much owns, since they run a bookstore, a pizza place and the B&B. Each room in the place is designed after a different romantic couple. It's just lovely.

A year ago, I had to go to St. Louis for an event -- I found a wonderful hotel -- The Cheshire in St. Louis (www.cheshirestl.com). Each room was named for an author and the author's books were on a table in the room.It was sort of a funky English place, but I loved it.

These sound fabulous! I would go straight for the Library Hotel, but I would have to bring along my sister the librarian.

If you are serious about getting away, there are artist colonies spread throughout the country. I try to go for a 2-week residency in winter. This December, I'm checking out of regular life and going to living at a colony in Virginia for 18 days. No duties but to write. If you can rearrange your life (I could never do this when my children were young) I highly recommend it.

I'd love an Edith Wharton room, all puffy comforters and with hot tea and views of the Berkshires. They made her home in Lenox, The MOnt,into a kind of bizarre decorator show house, but whoa. What if we all bought it, yeah, and made it into The Wharton Inn? Now THAT would be cool.

I stayed in the Virgina Wolff room at the Sylvia Beach Hotel! I was teaching a weekend workshop for the wonderful Oregon Writers Colony (http://oregonwriterscolony.org/) and it was so lovely. Right on the beach. Great walking to take a break from writing. Charming guest rooms and common spaces.

Fortunately (or UNfortunately) my house is quiet most days with husband at work and daughters tucked away in their grownup lives. So my office IS my retreat. Susan, come visit me and we can share it!

As a former ( actual) librarian, I find the Library Hotel a bit too much. Overthought, perhaps. Having said that? The restaurant looks great and I have been to their delightful 14th floor bar. A favorite. And it's all just around the corner from where MWA/NY has monthly mystery programs (public- all invited!) at Mid-Manhattan library branch

My favorite retreat, and one I want to redo next year, was a weekend in Confluence, PA in the Laurel Highlands. The house was snug with a great fireplace, gorgeous locale, and great friends. Hang out, write, talk shop - oh yeah, and eat and drink chocolate wine! It was terrific.

18 days would be heavenly - but I don't think my family would forgive me for leaving that long.

But when you mentioned the Sylvia Hotel I thought immediately of one of my favorite Cheryl Wheeler songs from the same-named album, Sylvia Hotel. Hers is about the hotel in Vancouver, BC, though, and I don't think literature is involved at all. (Watch and listen here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CE8CaKRsGvU)

I have stayed at a wonderful retreat house in western Massachusetts, Wellspring House, where every room is named after a female Massachusetts author. It's quite inexpensive, Susan, because you bring your own food and can use the kitchen. I've gotten major word count accomplished there over several long weekend self-retreats. I stayed in the Wheatley room. (I wrote about it here: http://www.edithmaxwell.com/2012/03/productive-bliss-at-wellspring-house_06.html)

Susan, the Nick and Nora room is yours. I would want the Eve and Roarke room. Even though the styling of the room (futuristic) is far from my aesthetic, I just love the In Death books so much and it is Nora Robert's place after all.

The Library Hotel in NY sounds fabulous but I've always dreamed of spending some time in New Orleans. There's an historic hotel called the Monteleone and it sounds amazing. I've copied and pasted the following from their website -

'The Hotel Monteleone, a history New Orleans hotel, has long been a favorite haunt of distinguished Southern authors. Many of them immortalized the Grand Dame of the French Quarter in their works. Ernest Hemingway, Tennessee Williams, and William Faulkner always made 214 Royal Street their address while in the Crescent City. While in the Carousel Bar & Lounge, Truman Capote used to boast that he was born in the Monteleone. (He wasn’t. Though his mother lived at the historic hotel during her pregnancy, she safely made it to the hospital in time for Truman’s debut.) The list doesn’t stop there; Anne Rice, Stephen Ambrose and John Grisham also joined the ranks of literary guests over the years.'

While trying to plug through a draft, I used to check into a faaaabulous hotel suite here in Pittsburgh for 3 or 4 nights. Room service, no distractions (Well, one weekend my suite neighbor was Bill Cosby, and I could hear him laughing in the hall) except great view. Just me and my laptop. I could come out of that hotel with 60-80 new pages, which was a miracle. Alas, my friend the manager is no longer around to give me the suite for free. So I'm at home heating up Lean Cuisine. Not the same at all. Sigh! The Lipstick blog ladies took a trip to Florida once. Big fun. What do you say, Reds? Organize, and we will come!

I am a travel agent and have been toying with the idea of literary themed trips. There are tons of great hotels on the theme. For those of you into Lord of the Rings, there is a Hobbit Motel in NZ. Portland is a great place for bookish travel. There's Powell's of course and The Nines Hotel has a deal set up with them to lend books to guests and the Heathman (setting of 50 Shades fame) has it's own lending library. Two not so well-known, yet totally cool places are The Commons in Minneapolis where they have book butlers and I recently booked some clients in Madrid at Hotel De Las Letras. The hotel has a very understated literary theme.

I'm with Hallie-- home is where I've got the stuff I need, and I live alone (except for the dog and the bird). And no extra charges.

All those books would just be a distraction. The Algonquin was a distraction (and the rooms were minuscule). If I had the money and really wanted to get away, I'd stay at the Chateau Marmont (absolutely enchanting). If it were summer, and I still could, I'd stay at my grandmother's lake cottage.

A friend and I were talking about doing a getaway to NYC sometime, and I told her that my priority is to stay at the Library Hotel at least one night. I've known a couple of people who have stayed there and loved it. Lucy, how wonderful you've actually stayed there. Kristopher, I'm with you on all the JRW writers and readers getting together in Boonsboro.

My dream hotel would be a mystery hotel, with different mystery and crime authors being the themes for the rooms. Of course, there would have to be an onsite mystery game, too. Oh, how perfect it would be!

To really write, I borrow a friend's ski area condo in the off-season. Perfect. Just me and the pika.

What about Ellery Adams' new series, the Book Retreat Mysteries? Armchair travel and retreat in one?

And if you want to stay in a hobbit hotel without going all the way to NZ, come to NW Montana! This is a private guest house modeled on The Hobbit, nicknamed the Shire of Montana. http://hobbithouseofmontana.com/

As a reader, I'd love to just work my through all of them, read each book that "lives" there, one vacation at a time, until I'd read everything/stayed at all of them. I wouldn't need to pack any books! Imagine that: ME having lighter luggage!(As in all my fantasies, I'd have the money to pay for all these vacations!)

I sometimes stay at the Montecito Inn in Santa Barbara. Not too many books there to distract and a very comfortable place to write. The best I have found although the First Hotel Grand in Odense, DK would be my choice while in Europe. In either place you can park yourself in your room and be comfortable without great expense while having access to writing space without a lot of distraction. I don't know if I need a place full of books if I want to write. They usually sing the siren song too loudly.

Okay—so they're not literary hotels—but the Montecito Inn was built by Charlie Chaplin and has literary leanings, and you can see Hans Christian Andersen's boyhood house from the room I always have when I stay in Odense.

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